


don't feed it, it will come back

by JennaTalbot



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Domestic Fluff, I don't know what I'm doing, M/M, Mild Language, it's easter!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-14
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2020-01-13 00:23:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18457670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JennaTalbot/pseuds/JennaTalbot
Summary: It's almost Easter at the Barns, and it wouldn't be a day in the life of Pynch without some mild shenanigans.





	don't feed it, it will come back

“Adam!”

Adam tilted his head slightly, but even with his poor hearing he could tell that his name was being yelled from the kitchen. 

“What?” he yelled back. He was comfortable on the couch, and Ronan had a habit of making him get up for the most asinine things. He sank a little deeper into the fabric, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. 

“This is your problem too, come help me deal with it!”

Adam sighed. He had no idea what Ronan was talking about and working a double shift today didn’t leave him inclined to put effort into finding out. It was dark out now, as it had been when Adam left that morning, and he couldn’t imagine what he had managed to fuck up in that span of time.

The corner of his mouth quirked up into an almost smile as he heard Ronan’s boots stomping down the hallway in his direction. 

“Parrish. Now,” Ronan said from where he stopped in the doorway. Adam studied him carefully. He looked angry, but not the sort of anger that made him sharp. This was the sort of anger that was born from confusion. Or perhaps exasperation. Ronan wore both like a second skin these days, usually in association with Opal. The two had a complicated relationship that Adam knew he would never fully understand. 

“You wound me,” Adam said in a monotone. “No hello? No ‘how was work sweetie, I know you had a long day, is there anything I can get you’?”

“If I ever call you sweetie, it will be shortly followed by me throwing myself off a cliff,” Ronan muttered. “And also, I am angry, so no, you don’t get a hello. Not until you deal with this.”

Adam’s curiosity was sufficiently piqued by this point. “Deal with what?”

Ronan gestured angrily back the way he had come from, indicating the hallway that led to the kitchen, before turning on his heel and stomping back that direction. He clearly expected Adam to follow. 

Adam let his eyes shut briefly before pushing himself up off of the couch and following his boyfriend down the poorly lit hallway. When he reached the kitchen, he froze. 

“What.... On no.”

“ _ You _ did this,” Ronan hissed, his suspicions confirmed as Adam barked out a laugh. 

In the center of the kitchen under the flickering fluorescent lights, Opal was sitting on the linoleum floor, a grin pasted on her face. 

“Stop—put that down, fuck!” Ronan exclaimed as Opal picked up an egg. 

The carnage of her feast was scattered around the room, bits of eggshell strewn across the floor, and sticky yolk smeared across both her face and her shirt. The carton of eggs that Adam had bought yesterday sat in her lap, now empty, save for the last egg she was currently holding. 

Based on the mess, Adam wasn’t sure it had only been one carton of eggs. 

He schooled his face into something serious while Ronan glowered, and Opal continued to hold her egg, the three of them momentarily frozen in some bizarre, late night tableau.   

“Opal, what exactly is going on here?” Adam had a feeling that he already knew, but he wanted to hear it from her.

“Easter!” was all the small dream creature exclaimed. 

Adam could feel Ronan seething, and that, coupled with Opal’s answer and his overwhelming tiredness, was the final straw. He started laughing, and once he started, he couldn’t stop. 

Ronan looked at him incredulously. “You think this is funny, Parrish?”   
  
Because he couldn’t quite breathe, Adam just nodded as he struggled to get himself back under control. There was a long moment of silence, punctuated only by his slight wheezing, before Ronan finally let out a chuckle too. It sounded more exasperated than anything, but Adam appreciated the effort all the same. 

“You may be right on this one,” Adam said as soon as he was able to speak again. His stomach hurt—he couldn’t remember the last time he had laughed this hard. Opal was a difficult creature to live with sometimes, but Adam made a mental note to be nicer to her, at least until the next time she filled his work boots with dirt and earthworms. 

Ronan just cocked an eyebrow, waiting for him to explain further.   

“You mentioned Easter the other day, when we were talking about what to do for it, and I could tell that Opal was confused. And since she came from your mind, I figured she didn’t know anything about Easter—”

“Is that an insult?” Ronan interrupted.

Adam smirked. “Only if you want it to be. If you don’t, then assume I meant because you had other things to think about, like those night terror demons.”

Ronan narrowed his eyes but didn’t say anything, and Adam took that as a sign to continue. 

“After you left, and told Opal she had to stay in so she didn’t bother you, I started telling her about Easter. And one of the things I told her about was Easter eggs, and how people color them. I told her about Easter egg hunts, and how someone will hide the colored eggs and then kids go and look for them. I also told her that people usually eat them after. Which, seems to be the only part of that conversation she really picked up on, unless she thought I hid all of the eggs in the carton in the fridge.”

At that, Opal’s grin grew even wider, and she bared her teeth slightly. Adam winced at the bits of eggshell that he saw there. 

“I mean, since she’s a dream creature, I doubt that you dreamt her the ability to get sick, so I’m sure she’s fine,” Adam said, hoping to diffuse the situation a little.

Ronan shook his head before walking over to the counter and grabbing the roll of paper towel, which he then proceeded to chuck in Adam’s direction. He had to lunge to catch it before it landed in the sticky mess that was their kitchen floor.

“You and the kid have fun, I’m going to bed,” Ronan said. 

Adam just rolled his eyes. He had a feeling Ronan would be up until Adam went to bed, and he didn’t trust the taller boy not to halfass the cleaning job anyways. He started unrolling the paper towel, figuring he should mop up some of the mess before sending Opal trekking through the wreckage to take a bath. The last thing he needed was her trailing egg goo through the rest of the house too.

“Give me that.” Adam held his hand out for the egg. Opal started at it for a long moment, wistful, before handing it to him. “Thank you. Now sit still,” he told her, knowing that command was more likely to be ignored. 

He placed the single egg in a bowl—the carton was too far gone, covered in egg as it was, to deserve a spot back in the fridge—and set it on the shelf before making his way back to Opal. 

“I guess you were listening, even if it was only half listening,” he remarked as he started mopping up the worst of the egg. To his surprise, Opal remained seated. Adam could feel her eyes tracking his movements as he wet some of the paper towels over the sink.

Gently, he began wiping the worst of the egg off of the girl. “You’re going to have to take a bath before bed now,” he told her as sternly as he could manage. Dream creature hygiene wasn’t exactly something he or Ronan kept up on regularly, but Adam could only imagine the places that she would get into while he and Ronan were sleeping, and he knew he would not want to find egg there. “I don’t have time to get salmonella,” he added.

Opal pouted, mumbling under her breath in the strange dream language that Ronan had invented for the two of them, her native tongue. It was clear by her displeasure that she understood. Bath time was a phrase that she had learned well, and Adam knew it was on her list of least favorite things. 

She continued muttering as Adam wiped up the worst of the egg, and as soon as he finished he helped her off of the floor and gave her a light shove in the direction of the bathroom. “Go now, and don’t come out until you’re clean!”   
  
As Opal scampered off, hopefully to the bathtub, Adam pulled out a new roll of paper toweling and some soap, and set to work wiping down the linoleum. The sooner he got this done, the sooner he could go find his boyfriend’s bed.

—  — — 

Adam stood on the porch, watching as Opal ran through the early morning mist after another rabbit. She had yet to catch one, for which Adam was incredibly thankful. He wasn’t sure exactly what she was after, but he overheard her muttering about eggs earlier. Shortly after, he remembered with a sinking feeling in his stomach telling her about the Easter bunny who delivered the colored eggs for the holiday.

“What is she up to now?” Ronan said as he came up behind Adam, snaking his arms around his waist. 

“No idea,” Adam said, face blank, as he turned around so he was facing his boyfriend. “I can’t imagine, not even in my wildest dreams.”

Ronan snorted and leaned in for a kiss, but stopped as Adam pulled back slightly. He froze, concerned. “What—”

Quickly, before Ronan could finish his thought and get any wrong ideas, Adam reached up and placed the pair of pink bunny ears that he had been holding onto Ronan’s head and pulled him into a kiss.

After a few moments, Ronan pulled back, breathless. “What did you…” he reached up and touched his head. 

“PARRISH!”

But Adam was already down the steps and out into the yard, snickering as he ran over to where Opal was happily spinning in circles, leaving trails in the dew.       

**Author's Note:**

> I have no excuse, except I haven't written in ages and then this happened? Comments/kudos give me life. Find me on tumblr @richardcampbells!


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